Realistically, the miniature train that is running through Everman Park during the Children’s Art & Literacy Festival this weekend is as far removed from model trains as it is from a locomotive.

Still, that doesn’t mean that members of the Abilene Society of Model Railroaders aren’t interested in it.

“It’s a train, no matter how it looks,” said Cecil Walston, of Colorado City and a member of the model railroad organization. The group will maintain and operate the train for its owners, the Abilene Arts Alliance.

The train almost didn’t make it to Abilene for the CALF. It didn’t arrive until Thursday morning, just in time for its maiden run that evening.

“It was down to the wire,” said Lynn Barnett, executive director of the Abilene Cultural Affairs Council. “We were supposed to get it in April, and then we were expecting it in May.”

The train — an engine and four cars that can carry 16 or so people — was purchased with private donations, said Barnett, adding that raising the money was just one of the obstacles. Barnett needed someone who could operate and maintain the train as well as transport it and a place was needed to store it.

Abilene car dealer Cal Sumrall donated a place to keep the train and the model railroaders voted to take care of the train and operate it.

“If it wasn’t for the generosity of this community, both financially and volunteering, this wouldn’t have happened,” Barnett said.

By all accounts, the train’s debut has been an unqualified success.

Walston, who along with Jim Gibson of Abilene, was operating the train Friday afternoon, said the Storybook Capital Express was running at full capacity every 10 minutes on its three-minute trip through the Dr. Seuss sculptures in Everman Park until about 3 p.m. when the heat started thinning the crowd a bit.

“We’ve had passengers from newborns to 90-year-olds,” Walston said.

Among the riders were Kinsley Pavelka, 7, and her 4-year-old brother Cooper, both of Abilene, who rode the train with their mother, Megan. While Kinsley had trouble explaining what she liked most about the train, Cooper was succinct.

“You could see the Grinch,” he said, referring to one of the Seuss characters on display in the park.

Cooper may well have referred to the train as a choo-choo but Gibson, the engineer, said that, technically speaking, the train is not a choo-choo because it’s diesel-powered and not steam-powered.

“It’s the steam that makes the ‘choo-choo,’” he said.

Because the train actually is a glorified tractor, Walston said, it can run anywhere there’s a hard surface. However, the train will stay off the streets because of traffic.

It operate on closed off streets, such as downtown streets during parades. Barnett said that with a few alterations, the train could run at the Adamson-Spalding Storybook Garden at the Convention Center.

“We think it’s a great addition to the Storybook Capital (of Texas),” she said.